DD Driving me nuts at Dinnertime!!

My DD used to be a pretty good eater, but in the last few weeks she has been refusing to eat dinner. She will bring me her full plate and say "I finished" and then spend the next 2 hours saying "I hungry, I food" and asking for cookies, ice cream, ice blocks, biscuits, cheese'n'sneeze (those le snak type of things), yogurt or anything BUT DINNER. She used to have pasta for dinner almost every day, especially if I was working (easy for me) but she just stopped eating it. So now I'm cooking her meat and veg/ noodles - she eats the meat, sometimes, and the noodles but not the veg. If she is really persistent (ie. asking constantly and taking biscuits/ ice blocks out of the cupboards and freezer) I will let her have a piece of fruit or a dry cruskit.
The really frustrating thing is that the day care book says she eats fine there, apparently she eats like a horse for the grandparents and the Bear!
Help! Tell me she'll get over it, suggest some answers or just tell me that at the very least I'm not alone. :wall:

They go through phases. Is she having snacks with a couple of hours prior to dinner? DD is younger I know but I brought her snack time back 30 mins because she wasn't eating all her dinner. There are weeks where she'll snub anything that's put in front of her and others she'll eat everything. Hoping that you don't end up bald while you figure it out though hun!

I would be putting her dinner plate in the fridge and only offering her that if she says she is hungry later on. If she doesn't want it then she must not be very hungry! (or that's what my 'mean' mum would have told me :lol: )

LOL ss_storm I might go back to making pasta and do that!! That way I can heat it up if she finally decides she is hungry :)
Crazy Lady at day care I think they have quite a lot of snacks, they have a big lunch, and afternoon tea, and a late snack around 5 - that's about when I get there to collect her and sometimes she has had it and sometimes not. Today they gave her a rice cracker as she was walking out the door but she only took a couple of bites.
She definitely eats more on non-daycare days, as I usually don't give her much in the way of snacks after lunch at all. :think: hmmm food for thought.

DS1 is same he wants yougurt, cookies or cheese only!! He will push plate away after none or very little.

I don't like idea of him going to bed hungry so will offer vegimite sandwich and yougurt.

I dont give an arvo snack unless dinner going to be after 6pm.

My DS1 (who's 2.5years old) goes through phases like that. Most of the time its when he's had a late afternoon tea or has snacks while I'm making dinner (either he's helped himself to cupboard or fridge or DH comes home and DS1 raids his lunchbox).

I try to make meals that he likes over and over again...favourites include spaghetti and tacos- so these tend to be weekly meals in our house (good thing DH and i ain't sick of them yet).

I've found a little solution for nights we had meat and vegies...its probably bad, but hey if it gets him eating his vegies then i don't see the harm. My secret weapon is BBQ sauce. Everything is 'dip, dip'. And he'll usually clear his vegies in record time that I give him seconds.

But i must say that we do still have nights where he'll not eat much- like tonight actually- it was meat and veg night, even the BBQ was not enough to encourage more (though he did eat half his vegies). But I'm not worried, cause I know he eats rather healthy most of the time during the day- so dinner is not a real concern if he only managers a mouthful or so...with BBQ sauce!

Good luck...hope you can find something that works for you's or gets over this phase quickly for you.